A royal set of wheels will be a nice little extra for the bride, writes Neil
Lyndon.

Kate Middleton won’t need to be reminded that she is about to join one of the most unusual families on Earth but, with one or two things to think about, she may not have considered the extreme oddity of that family’s customary modes of working transport.

There can’t be more than a couple of hundred people on the planet who are often expected to turn out for work in horse-drawn carriages; and of those few, only members of the House of Windsor, I believe, regularly ride around in motor cars that could accurately be described as horseless carriages.

The 109-year-old State Landau in which – weather permitting – the bride and groom will be transported back to Buckingham Palace after the royal wedding service is only a few decades short of the same vintage as some of the cars from the Royal Mews in which members of the Royal family will process.

The Rolls-Royce Phantom VI in which Miss Middleton will ride to the Abbey dates from the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, which in royal terms means that it is barely run in. This is the same car that was damaged and splattered with white paint by rioting students when they attacked the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall last December. “Make do and mend” has always been the Queen’s motto with cars.

Some of the wonderful old Rollers that will trundle up and down the Mall have been in use almost throughout the Queen’s entire reign (as was the Phantom V that was kept aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia to be lowered ashore when the Queen visited foreign parts).

Many have rear doors that open towards the rear, like a carriage, and a few have still got drum brakes – making them close kin with the Daimler Mail Phaeton which became the first royal car when Edward, Prince of Wales, bought it in 1900 (beginning a long connection between Daimler and the Royal family which ended only last year with the sale of the Queen’s Daimler Majestic V8).

Now that Great Britain is only a production platform for foreign manufacturers, the Queen can do nothing more than to support the British craftsmen and women who are reduced to decking out German car platforms.

Her Bentley state limousine – a gift for the Golden Jubilee – was assembled by the master craftsmen of Crewe but it came from the munificence of the Volkswagen group, which owns Bentley, just as it owns the Audi brand which many of the junior Royal family members favour. Audi famously became a royal brand of choice with the A4 Cabriolet that Diana, Princess of Wales, chose to show off her single state after her divorce.

And nothing could more dramatically have declared Edward VIII’s renunciation of the British throne and his attachment to the America of “the woman I love” than the 1936 Buick Limited Series 90 Eight Limousine in which he chose to be driven away after his abdication.

And, if you think those old Rollers might be a touch de trop, you should look at the official wedding Rolls-Royce of Princess Hajah Majeedah Nurul Bulqiah binti and Yang Amat Mulia Pengiran Anak Khairul Khalil bin Pengiran Syed Haji Jaafari in Brunei. The car is as fantastically over the top as the names.